Located in the Arctic Circle, Abisko National Park is known as one of the premier locations to witness the northern lights. Early on a Sunday morning, Courtny & I journeyed via plane and shuttle from Stockholm to Abisko.
With a solar storm hitting just as we began our trip, our hope was to see the northern lights. But that is never a guarantee, so we had plenty of other Arctic activities planned, too.

Dogsledding

Dogsledding was a great introduction to the frozen tundra of Abisko National Park. After our ride, it was time to go back to the hostel and get ready to do what we came for: hunt the aurora.

Despite snowstorms and fog throughout the evening, we had a few moments at the end of the night where the aurora was revealed.

Sami Reindeer Experience

The following day, we ventured about 45 minutes away from Abisko to see some reindeer.

The Sami Reindeer Experience gave us a wonderful look into Sami culture.

Plus it was fun to feed the reindeer :)

Night 2 in Abisko was an emotional rollercoaster. After arriving to our wilderness location via snowmobile, we saw an absolutely stunning ribbon form across the sky.
Unfortunately, clouds moved in for much of the evening. But then, about 30 minutes before packing it in for the night, the skies parted and we got an AMAZING show!

The start of the night had a lot of potential.

After a few hours of heavy cloud coverage, we caught a glimpse of a very strong aurora.

Some real-time footage. Timelapses can be misleading with the aurora, but are often the only way to capture it. That’s not the case with the Sony A7S2.

This show was visible in parts of England - you can imagine how amazing it was in the Arctic Circle!

While the clouds were still hanging around, the whole scene was still breathtaking.

Suddenly, the sky was almost completely open. What a night!

That feeling when you get one of those bucket-list types of nights most people only dream of...

More real time footage from the end of the night. Totally worth waiting out the clouds in the freezing cold!

The final day in Sweden was spent snowmobiling the stunning King’s Trail

We hope you enjoyed our #epixtrip entry!

We stayed at the Abisko.net hostel, and couldn’t have been happier with our stay. I’d suggest using them and Lights Over Lapland to truly make the most of your time in Abisko!
On our next story:
Norway’s stunning winter landscapes, including mountains, fjords, and some epic northern lights adventures in the Lofoten.

@richardbangs they’re caused by sun particles colliding with the earth’s atmosphere. We were lucky to be that far north throughout a weeklong solar storm, so we saw the lights nearly every night of our Scandinavia trip